Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Confusing political terms - (what is a "moderate?")
RENEW AMERICA.US ^ | APRIL 8, 2005 | EDWARD L. DALEY

Posted on 04/08/2005 1:50:03 PM PDT by CHARLITE

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-44 next last
To: CHARLITE
Moderate, Independent, Liberal. They are all the same to me.If you say Moderate you are trying to act as if you are some kind of great thinker. Someone who really thinks everything through. Yeah right, fact is you are someone with no who lines up on the liberal side probubly 95% of the time but wants to seem objective.
21 posted on 04/08/2005 2:23:10 PM PDT by Duke Wayne
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CHARLITE
Can someone please explain to me what a moderate is, in political terms?

Someone who wants the right to stay out of his bedroom, and the left to stay out of his wallet.

22 posted on 04/08/2005 2:25:19 PM PDT by malakhi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CHARLITE

There's only two things in the middle of the road. Roadkill and a yellow stripe.


23 posted on 04/08/2005 2:26:12 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan ("If Stabenow were any bigger a roadblock, she could halt traffic on all of I-75.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: malakhi

"Moderates" tend to be gun grabbers as well.


24 posted on 04/08/2005 2:26:41 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan ("If Stabenow were any bigger a roadblock, she could halt traffic on all of I-75.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: VRWCisme
but have been brainwashed into believing that conservatives are meanspirited, closeminded, and bad

Right, because conservatives never do anything to fuel these stereotypes...

25 posted on 04/08/2005 2:27:15 PM PDT by malakhi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: CHARLITE

A "moderate" is someone who can't take his own side in a quarrel.


26 posted on 04/08/2005 2:27:35 PM PDT by sauropod (Life under Dictatorship is far more safer, than behind the bars of your democracy. - Iraq Mujahadeen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dan from Michigan
"Moderates" tend to be gun grabbers as well.

Some are, some aren't.

27 posted on 04/08/2005 2:28:36 PM PDT by malakhi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: VRWCisme
I know a few like that too. To describe themselves as 'conservative' would be to define themselves as close-minded or intolerant and some would rather not be seen that way by their liberal friends.

Of course, most of the 'moderates' I know are moderate by the MSM definition: viscerally opposed to the right, but to call themselves liberal would be too constraining.

28 posted on 04/08/2005 2:29:52 PM PDT by GenXFreedomFighter (We smirked our way back to a second term!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: malakhi
In my experience every "moderate" but one was a gun grabber and every moderate was pro-abort.

By moderate, I refer to who the media considers moderate, and anyone who calls themself a moderate.

I tend to respect self-proclaimed liberals more than self-proclaimed moderates with few exceptions. At least I know where the liberal stands when push comes to shove.

29 posted on 04/08/2005 2:31:06 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan ("If Stabenow were any bigger a roadblock, she could halt traffic on all of I-75.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: malakhi

"'but have been brainwashed into believing that conservatives are meanspirited, closeminded, and bad'
Right, because conservatives never do anything to fuel these stereotypes..."

Sure there are conservatives who are mean people, just as there are liberals who are mean people. But that doesn't mean the stereotype of conservatives as mean is accurate or that the policies advocated by most conservatives are deserving of the popular stereotype. I know many people who call themselves moderates yet agree with the traditional conservative position a good 3/4 of the time or more, but they think if you call yourself a conservative, you are a bad person. That's not justified.


30 posted on 04/08/2005 2:34:30 PM PDT by VRWCisme
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: My2Cents
Someone with no convictions.

I agree. If you have religious convictions, moral convictions, or even just foundational principles, you aren't/can't be moderate. The hallmark of a moderate is the willingness to settle for a comprise on anything. If you are able to stand firm, then you aren't moderate.

31 posted on 04/08/2005 2:34:34 PM PDT by delacoert (imperat animus corpori, et paretur statim: imperat animus sibi, et resistitur. -AUGUSTINI)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: malakhi
Someone who wants the right to stay out of his bedroom, and the left to stay out of his wallet.

Guess I'm a moderate, then....

32 posted on 04/08/2005 2:37:03 PM PDT by Modernman ("I'm in favor of limited government unless it limits what I want government to do."- dirtboy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

Comment #33 Removed by Moderator

To: My2Cents
Someone with no convictions.

Moderates have convicitions.

They usually get them after indictments.

34 posted on 04/08/2005 2:55:18 PM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: WinOne4TheGipper; Ghost of Philip Marlowe; ThreePuttinDude; nothingnew; CitizenM; ...
"A moderate is someone who is to embarrassed to call themselves a liberal."

Thanks for this.......and everyone else's comments also. I very much agree that a huge number of liberals call themselves "moderates" out of embarrassment, just as WinOne4TheGipper says. Excellent!

Note Thomas Sowell's super article in JWR for April 5th. Title: Liberal attitudes

His thesis is that modern liberalism has become a set of attitudes. I agree with Sowell.

Excerpts

"Liberals may think of themselves as people who believe in certain principles but, if you observe their actual behavior, you are likely to discover that most liberals have a certain set of attitudes, rather than principles.

Liberals may denounce "greed," for example, but in practice it all depends on whose greed. Nothing the government does is ever likely to be called "greed" by liberals.

"Diversity" has become one of the crusades of liberals, especially academic liberals. But, in a country that is pretty closely divided politically, it is not at all uncommon to find a whole academic department -- sociology, for example -- without a single Republican today or for the past three decades."

"Among liberals' most cherished views of themselves is that they are in favor of promoting the well-being of minorities in general and blacks in particular. But here again, it all depends on which segments of the minority community are involved.

Black welfare recipients or even black criminals have received great amounts of liberal political and journalistic support over the years. However, the great majority of blacks, who are neither criminals nor welfare recipients but are in fact their main victims, have their interests subordinated to the interests of their unsavory neighbors who are more in vogue in liberal circles."

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20050405.shtml

35 posted on 04/08/2005 2:55:50 PM PDT by CHARLITE (Women are powerful; freedom is beautiful.........and STUPID IS FOREVER!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Always Right
The MSM defines someone who has 90% core liberal values and 10% conservative values, a 'moderate', with the exception no one who is pro-life is ever a moderate.

In the 2000 GOP race, there was one candidate, who wanted to raise minimum wage, link human and civil rights to free trade, opposed flat tax, consumption taxes, and big tax cuts, he also was opposed to privatizing social security.

His name was Gary Bauer.

I have yet to see him classified as anything other then right wing, conservative, or far right wing.

His views on economics and finance were at best populist, at worst, downright liberal, and he is still called a "right wing nut".

36 posted on 04/08/2005 2:58:54 PM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: delacoert
"The hallmark of a moderate is the willingness to settle for a comprise on anything. If you are able to stand firm, then you aren't moderate."

BINGO. Very well put, delacoert! Thanks. You're right on the mark.

37 posted on 04/08/2005 2:59:07 PM PDT by CHARLITE (Women are powerful; freedom is beautiful.........and STUPID IS FOREVER!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Killborn; CHARLITE
you forgot those who believe the lies of liberals on moral issues.

I was probably one of your first types. The thing is that Democrat politicians used to love the US. The whole antiwar thing took seed in the 1960's and bore fruit in the 1980's In the 1970's there were still Democrats who loved their country. 'Scoop' Jackson was one, who I voted in the Washington State Democrat caucus in 1976. I ended up voting for Ford, because I did not trust Carter.

I became more conservative, as the Democrats became more liberal and 'progressive'.
38 posted on 04/08/2005 3:01:34 PM PDT by NathanR (Mexico: So far from God; So close to the USA.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Modernman

No. That is a Libertarian.


39 posted on 04/08/2005 3:03:50 PM PDT by NathanR (Mexico: So far from God; So close to the USA.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Modernman
Guess I'm a moderate, then....

Ditto! :o)

40 posted on 04/08/2005 3:07:19 PM PDT by malakhi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-44 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson